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Ohio Sports Media Reacts to Ryan Day Suggesting Moving Ohio State vs Michigan

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Could we see the annual meeting between Ohio State and Michigan on the football field moved to a different weekend on the schedule? Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day suggested that the idea is worth talking about.

At Big Ten media day on Wednesday, Day said moving “The Game” away from its traditional Saturday after Thanksgiving slot would be with the intent to avoid having to play back-to-back weeks between the end of the regular season and the Big Ten title game.

The suggestion by Day got the attention of the Ohio sports media, who scoffed at the idea.

Some in sports media have wondered if The Game should be moved out of its high noon time slot into a more favorable TV window, but the conference seems keen on keeping the tradition going.

YouTubeTV Offering Max, NFL Sunday Ticket Bundle

BSM Staff
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YouTubeTV Offering Max, NFL Sunday Ticket Bundle

We’re inching ever closer to the inaugural season of NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV, and Google is pulling out all the stops to get people to sign up.

According to reporting from Front Office Sports, Google’s parent company Alphabet plans to offer a bundle with Warner Bros. Discovery streaming service Max. No pricing details were revealed, but the goal would be to expand potential reach of the Sunday Ticket package into more general interest audiences.

Google is paying a reported $2 billion per season for the rights to Sunday Ticket. The company is currently offering a $50 discount off all tiers.

Currently, Sunday Ticket is going for $299 with a base YouTube TV plan, which is $72.99 a month. If you want to throw in NFL RedZone, the price goes up to $339 for Sunday Ticket. The standalone package is $399 through September 19. Sunday Ticket and RedZone without YouTube TV is $439.

Mike Gorman Plans to Retire After 2023-24 Celtics Season

BSM Staff
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Longtime Boston Celtics radio play-by-play announcer Mike Gorman plans to make the upcoming NBA season his last behind the microphone.

Gorman was profiled by The Athletic, chronicling his journey from suffering a detached retina earlier this year. Wanting to go out on his own terms, Gorman committed to retiring after the 2023-24 campaign.

“If I had to pin myself down, I would say, ‘Yeah, next year will probably be my last year,'” said Gorman. “If we were looking at the roster from the ’90s right now, I’d be saying, ‘I’m done.’ But this team has a chance to win a championship and I’d just like to be around for that.”

But the decision to hang up the headset has been one he’s been wrestling with for the better part of three years. He first started contemplating retirement when longtime broadcast partner Tommy Heinsohn became ill and passed away in 2020.

“The main time I was thinking about leaving was when it was obvious that Tommy was not going to be able to work much longer and then he passed,” Gorman said. “A big part of me said, ‘Maybe I should pass with him and leave Mike and Tommy in the past.’

“But then I thought about the time when Tommy was sick and I asked (him), ‘What do you think I should do?'” Gorman added. “And he said, ‘Don’t go anywhere. Keep doing this. You and (Brian) Scalabrine will be OK.’ If Tommy thinks I should stay, I’ll stay and see how it plays out.”

Gorman, who will make the 2023-24 season his 42nd calling games, is a Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer by virtue of receiving the Curt Gowdy Award in 2021.

Mike said competitive basketball is what has kept him in it over these last few years.

“There are times when I say it’s time to leave and then there’s times when we play a really good game and I say I’m not going anywhere,” Gorman said. “Bad teams, I don’t really want to be there. Some of these teams, like the Orlando Magic, are pretty fun because they’ve got some young players. Indiana Pacers, if I never saw the Indiana Pacers again, I’d be fine. Detroit Pistons, if I never saw them again, it would be OK with me.”

MoffettNathanson Analyst: Sports Would Give Netflix Better ROI Than Movies

BSM Staff
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MoffettNathanson Analyst: Sports Would Give Netflix Better ROI Than Movies

Netflix is pretty dug in on its position on live sports rights. CEO Ted Sarandos has said he does not see a real benefit in the streaming giant getting involved in content that it cannot control and that he is happy to stay “sports adjacent” with the company’s popular sports documentary series.

Michael Nathanson, co-founder of the research firm MoffettNathanson, isn’t buying that there is just no interest in live sports from Netflix.

“I have learned to watch what Netflix does and not what they say,” he said in an interview with The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch, citing past interviews where Sarandos told him he never foresaw Netflix making original content.

Like other streaming services, the subscription cost for Netflix is on the rise. Nathanson says without sports, there will always be an argument to be made that the amount of time an averague user spends on the platform doesn’t justify the monthly cost

“There’s a point at which I say to my family — for, say, $25 a month — ‘I’m sorry, but it’s maybe an hour and a half of our day,'” he said. “It’s a ton of money. But if you add sports, the history of sports pricing is pretty powerful, right? Look at the price of tickets to baseball games these days for 81 games a year. I think it will drive pricing, and I think it would also be better ROI than the films they’re making.”

Nathanson said that if Netflix is looking for a sports investment that would offer a lot of “bang for the buck,” there is one out there that is ready to negotiate.

“The NBA deal is coming up, so let’s see what happens. The NBA, given it is international, would be a win-win for both sides.”

Bomani Jones’ ESPN Contract Not Expected To Be Renewed

BSM Staff
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Bomani Jones’ ESPN Contract Not Expected To Be Renewed

Bomani Jones, the host of the popular podcast The Right Time with Bomani Jones, is not expected to have his contract renewed by ESPN, according to a report by Front Office Sports. Jones’ current contract expires at the end of July, and the news comes just three weeks after news broke that his HBO show, Game Theory with Bomani Jones, received the ax by the outlet.

“The economic fate of people in sports media is getting dicier and dicier by the day,” Jones said. “I think the ESPN layoffs were the beginning of it in a lot of ways. Seeing what happened with The New York Times shutting down their sports department and they moved those people to other desks, but at some point they’re probably going to deem those people to be a surplus and they’re not going to be there anymore.”

Jones’ fate is reportedly unrelated to the ESPN talent layoffs that took place earlier this month, which involved the departure of established veteran talent including Jeff Van Gundy, Suzy Kolber and Jalen Rose.

He first joined the “Worldwide Leader” as a writer in 2004 for the now-defunct Page 2. He returned in 2012 to co-host Highly Questionable alongside Dan Le Batard for four years, followed by High Noon featuring Pablo Torre.

At the moment, Jones occasionally hosts The Evening Jones podcast. With his forthcoming contract expiration, it is unknown whether or not he will return to it regularly or embark on a new job or project. Its first podcast episode in over one year was released in early July speaking about the end of Game Theory.

In his conversation with Andrew Cohen of Front Office Sports, Jones expressed confusion over why ESPN is purportedly speaking with sports leagues about purchasing an equity stake in the company. It comes at a time when artificial intelligence is threatening the livelihoods of many in the industry as networks look to cut costs and streamline processes.

“There’s a level of creativity that the computers are never going to be able to replace that will always necessitate people,” Jones said. “What AI can do is write a game story. There’s a lot of things in our world that AI can do that really can affect the employment prospects that a lot of us have in this game.”

Judge Rules Grant Napear Can Proceed With Lawsuit Against Bonneville

BSM Staff
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Grant Napear will get his day in court against Bonneville International. A U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California ruled that his wrongful termination suit against his former employer can proceed, but not all of the claims will move forward.

Judge Dale A. Drozd ruled that the case may proceed on the grounds of retaliation. The judge threw out Napear’s claim of religious discrimination. He also denied the broadcaster’s request to add a claim of breach of contract.

Napear was fired by Bonneville International in May of 2020 after tweeting the phrase “all lives matter” in response to former Kings big man DeMarcus Cousins asking how he felt about the Black Lives Matter movement. 

Bonneville noted that there was a clause in Napear’s contract that deemed any act that “might discredit the goodwill, good name or reputation” a fireable offense. Napear claims he did not know the phrase was viewed as disparaging. He added that as a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church, he was taught there is an “inherent worth and dignity of every person.”

The court said that Napear’s complaint does not meet the standard for religious discrimination.

In addition to being the radio voice of the Sacramento Kings on KHTK, Grant Napear co-hosted the station’s afternoon show with Mike Bibby.

Bonneville had asked the judge to dismiss Napear’s claim of retaliation. However, the judge ruled that Napear’s lawyers had sufficiently alleged that Bonneville used the termination “as an example to all other employees of the Company as an implicit warning that anyone that dared to speak out publicly and criticize the politics of the Black Lives Matter movement would be summarily terminated.”

Tucker Carlson: ‘I Know’ Fox News Made Deal with Dominion to Take Me Off Air

BNM Staff
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As the biography of former Fox News host Tucker Carlson is scheduled to debut, an excerpt from the book shares the host’s thought process on why he was let go in April.

The Guardian received an advanced copy of the book that is scheduled to be released in the United States on Tuesday, August 1st, and in the excerpt, Carlson says he “knows” a pact was made by the cable outlet and Dominion Voting Systems as talks of a $787.5 million settlement progressed.

“They agreed to take me off the air, my show off the air, as a condition of the Dominion settlement,” Carlson said, according to his biographer Chadwick Moore. “They had to settle this; Rupert [Murdoch, the 92-year-old Fox News owner] couldn’t testify. I think that deal was made minutes before the trial started.

“I mean, I know it was.”

The theory floated by Carlson was first unveiled by Moore in May.

“It has now been reported that his firing was a condition demanded by Dominion as part of the settlement with Fox. Although Dominion has denied this, my sources have intimate knowledge of the situation and have assured me — even before this news leaked — that that is in fact the truth,” Moore claimed in a video on Twitter.

“If that is true, that would mean a small group of people who have a controlling interest in Dominion have managed to silence what is arguably the most important and conservative voice in the country, possibly until after the next presidential election.”

Fox News has continually denied that Carlson’s departure is related to the settlement with the election machine company.

Alleged Fox News Hacker Makes First Public Statements

BNM Staff
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Alleged Fox News Hacker Makes First Public Statements

Former Deadspin editor Timothy Burke gave his first interview Wednesday after his home was raided in May in connection with the Tucker Carlson leaks from Fox News.

In an appearance on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, Burke would neither confirm nor deny he was ever in possession of the leaks of Carlson published by Media Matters after the host’s late April ouster from Fox News.

He did, however, note that he has made powerful enemies during his time as a digital journalist. He was asked if he thought Fox News has outsourced the federal government to serve as its quasi-internal investigator and said we will eventually know whether that is what happened or not.

“I brought this upon myself. This comes with the territory,” admitted Burke. “I don’t know what actual procedures happen to lead to 20 some FBI agents showing up in my house on Monday morning. I hope that we learned those very soon.”

Burke added that Fox News is in a delicate state after its $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems and was looking to strike back where it could.

“Let’s be honest, Fox News is in a bit of a crisis. They just had to pay out like three-quarters of a billion dollars to Dominion. Smartmatic is next in line with their defamation suit. They’ve got a long string of sexual harassment suits that they got to deal with,” Burke continued. “This is sort of a — you got the injured bear. We’ll find out eventually, but you would hope that the federal government and its policies and procedures that we have put in place to protect people who are engaging in the First Amendment like me, you would hope that those things would supersede the ability of a corporation to try to exact revenge on somebody who’s embarrassed it.”

After being without his phone or computers for 75 days, Burke said he is just ready to move on and return to his profession.

“I want to get back out there and doing the things that I’ve been doing on Twitter for more than 15 years of presenting breaking news and alerting people to what’s happening in their communities. That’s what I want to get back to and I hope and I know that eventually, cooler heads are going to prevail in this. People are gonna realize what this is about. And I’m gonna get my stuff back and maybe an apology,” he concluded. “An apology would be nice I think.”

Burke is accused of hacking into Fox News to obtain a series of videos that aimed to paint Carlson in a negative light after his April firing. In the videos, Carlson asks a Fox News makeup artist if she ever had a pillow fight. Another showed him denigrating the FOX Nation streaming service, while another showed Kanye West making misogynistic and anti-Semitic comments while appearing with Carlson for an interview.

Some conservative pundits accused Fox News executives of leaking the videos to defame Carlson. However, a Department of Justice investigation ultimately led back to Burke as the culprit.

Mark Schlereth: ‘I’ve Got 3 Jobs, I’m Doing Okay’

BSM Staff
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Mark Schlereth: ‘I’ve Got 3 Jobs, I’m Doing Okay’

As the city of Denver, Colo. comes off celebrating two professional sports championships in the last two years, it is vying to see its baseball and football teams be in the conversation as legitimate contenders again. The Denver Broncos have not qualified for the postseason in the last seven seasons, most recently posting a five-win 2022 campaign. This offseason, the team hired Sean Payton, the former head coach who helped the New Orleans Saints win Super Bowl XLIV for the 2009 season, with the hopes that he could help improve the play of quarterback Russell Wilson.

Mark Schlereth, being a former guard with the Denver Broncos and three-time Super Bowl champion, has the credibility and résumé to give an inside perspective into the team’s quest to capture the Vince Lombardi Trophy for the first time since the 2015 season. He appears daily on the Schlereth & Evans morning radio program on Denver Sports 104.3 The Fan, and during the football season, he is a game analyst with the NFL on FOX.

“I’ve got three jobs – I’m doing okay,” Schlereth said.

Earlier in the segment, Schlereth spoke about the venerable job Payton has done with football teams in the past. He is excited to see what he will be able to do as the head coach of the Broncos during an uncertain time for the franchise. Payton stepped down as the head coach of the Saints after the 2021 regular season and worked as an analyst on FOX NFL Kickoff last year.

“The guy can coach, and the guy consistently puts winners out there and holds his guys accountable – that’s all,” Schlereth said of Payton. “I don’t know about you guys, but I like winning. It’s been in short supply around here.”

Schlereth is involved with a chili company called “Stinkin’ Good” where he and restaurateur David Bloom are working together to spread it around the country. With all of these roles and responsibilities, he has remained busy after his football career and is not looking to join Payton’s coaching staff on the Broncos. Yet there is one other business idea of intrigue that he may look to become involved in down the road.

“I thought about starting a lawn mowing company [and] just [mowing] lawns in my neighborhood,” Schlereth said. “Dude, I guarantee you I could make six grand a month just mowing lawns. I would love it too.”

Nick Kayal: What Does Brian Stelter Know About Running a News Outlet?

BNM Staff
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Reporting from Variety yesterday claimed a CNN executive reached out to former network host Brian Stelter on how to handle the ongoing turmoil of Chris Licht’s tenure. 1210 WPHT morning host Nick Kayal questioned why Stelter would be on the list of people you’d ask for advice.

During Kayal and Company Wednesday, the Philadelphia host read through some of the revelations made from the Variety report, before noting how — in his opinion — bizarre it was to ask for Stelter’s opinion.

“Remember our resident fact-checker who tried to tell you what was right and wrong throughout society for many years, Brian Stelter? Now unemployed Brian Stelter. Days before Licht’s firing a top executive sought the advice of Brian Stelter,” said Kayal. “That would be the equivalent of (1210 WPHT Program Director) Greg Stocker firing me for whatever reason, and getting ready to go through a major ownership change, and Stocker reaching out to me for advice.

“Why would you do that? What exactly does Brian Stelter know about running a major media news operation like CNN? If you want to call them a major media news operation.”

Stelter was dismissed by CNN after Licht’s appointment as President and CEO of the network. He had previously hosted a Sunday show — Reliable Sources — that covered the media.

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